Submissions Library

Julie Saylor Briggs is a Torres Strait and Yorta Yorta woman.

This submission discusses the importance of Country.

Keicha Day is a a Gunditjmara/Yorta Yorta woman.

This submission is a trancript of Keicha discussing the impact of colonisation on Country and community.

Dr Wayne Atkinson is a Yorta Yorta Elder and Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne.

This submission includes papers from Dr Atkinson’s PhD thesis tracing the origins of reserves and the policy of segregation and control. Also includes is an historic analysis of land injustice in Victoria, drawing on Dr Atkinson’s knowledge as a principle claimant in the Yorta Yorta case.

Environmental Justice Victoria is a public interest environmental law practice. It provides legal advice and support to the community on public interest environmental issues, advocates for better environmental laws, and provides legal education to the community on environmental matters. It acts primarily for community organisations, Traditional Owners groups and NGOs on matters concerning environment and natural resources laws and policy.

This second submission covers the significance of laws governing land-use planning, environmental protection (pollution and waste), and environmental assessment to truth-telling, justice and treaty-making in relation to lands, waters and natural resources.

Andy Govanstone is a historian who has been connected with the restoration of Taerak.

This submission reflects on the impact of invasion and proposes an appropriate location to include in a ceremony or process of recognition.

Waluwin Foundation’s purpose is to return Aboriginal people back to a productive, sustainable life on Country.

This submission is the Waluwin Foundation paper “How can First Nations people buy the farm? The re-establishing the First Nations agrarian economy”.

The Kaiela Institute is a First Nations-led analysis and policy think tank.

This submission details how:

• The colonial system ensured that all First Nations economic assets were stolen without recompense or provision of any other compensatory resources to maintain their livelihood.
• The imposed legal and reserve system destroyed the supportive value of communities and families and effectively imprisoned and prevented First Nations people from participating in the growing economy.
• The imposed legal and financial systems discriminated against First Nations people so that any economic support would only be at the poverty line at best and this was intended to facilitate control.
• Institutional structures like banks combined with the informal colonial cultural systems of systemic racism to exclude First Nations people from any economic opportunities.
• Many of the systemic, institutional and cultural barriers still operate in a discriminatory manner today.

Uncle Jim Berg is a Gunditjmara Elder. He was the founder of the Koorie Heritage Trust Inc and was involved in the establishment of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service. Uncle Jim was the inaugural Chair of the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council and served as a Council member for 12 years.

This submission is of selected pages from John Ogden, Portraits from a Land without Peoples: A Pictoral Anthology of Indigenous Australia 1847-2008, Cyclops Press.